Edward Neufville Tailer
Edward Neufville Tailer (July 20, 1830 – February 15, 1917)[1] who was a New York merchant and banker, and a prominent member of New York Society during the Gilded Age.[2]
E. N. Tailer | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Edward Neufville Tailer July 20, 1830 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Died | February 15, 1917 (aged 86) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Spouse(s) | Agnes Suffern
( |
| Parent(s) | Edward Neufville Tailer Ann Amelia Bogert |
| Relatives | Earl E. T. Smith (grandson) Robert Reginald Livingston (grandson) |
Early life
Tailer was born on July 20, 1830 in the Greenwich Village section of New York City. He was the son of New York merchant[3] Edward Neufville Tailer (1797–1873) and Ann Amelia (née Bogert) Tailer (1802–1883).[4] His younger brothers included lawyer Henry Austin Tailer, who was born in 1833,[3] and William Hallett Tailer, who was born in 1842.[5] His father "retired with a fortune in 1837."[6]
His grandfather was Edward Neufville Tailer, Sr. and they were all descendants of Sir William Tailer, a colonial governor of Massachusetts.[5]
Tailer was educated at the well known "Penquest's French school" located on Bank street.[6]
Career
In December 1848, he began his career with the firm of Little, Alden & Co.[7] on Broad Street.[1] In the early part of his career, he was associated with the firms of W. & S. Phipps & Co. of Boston and New York as well as Fanshaw, Milliken & Townsend, Reimer & Meche, and Sturges, Shaw & Co., as a buyer and salesman.[6]
He eventually founded the successful importing and commission house of Winzer & Tailer (later known as E.N. & W.H. Tailer & Co.).[6] The firm was a prominent dry goods merchant, importing cloth company located in New York City.[8] In his travels, he crossed the Atlantic Ocean more than forty times.[6]
He was also a director of several banks,[9] including The German-American Bank and The Northern Dispensary. He retired from business in 1893.[1]
Beginning in 1848, when he was just 18 years old,[4] Tailer kept a daily diary of social matters and other events.[2][10] Annually, he bound these diaries and kept them in his library.[1] Upon his death, his son Thomas inherited the diaries.[11]
Society life
Tailer was a member of the controversial "Four Hundred" of New York Society,[12] as dictated by Mrs. Astor and Ward McAllister and published in The New York Times on February 16, 1892.[13][14] Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom.[15] In 1874, he joined the Patriarchs, a group of the city's elite men that was established by McAllister. He succeeded James Alexander Hamilton.[6]
He was a member of the vestry of Ascension Church. He was a member of the Union Club of the City of New York, the Union League Club, the Tuxedo Club, the Country Club, Westchester Polo Club, and Merchants' Clubs and The New England Society and St. Nicholas Society.[6][16]
Personal life
Tailer was married to Agnes Suffern (1830–1917),[17] the daughter of Thomas Suffern,[9] an Irish immigrant who made a fortune importing Irish linens.[12] They lived in a house at 11 Washington Square North built in 1834 by her father,[10] and traveled extensively around Europe.[4] Together, they were the parents of:[18]
- Agnes Suffern Tailer (1858–1932),[19] who married Henry Lawrence Burnett (1838–1916) in 1882 at the Church of the Ascension.[20]
- Mary Tailer (1863–1944),[21][22] who married Robert Reginald Livingston (1858–1899) of Northwood,[23] the brother of architect Goodhue Livingston and grandson of Lt. Governor Edward Philip Livingston, in 1884.[24]
- Thomas Suffern Tailer (1866–1928),[25] who married Maude Louise Lorillard (1876–1922),[26] the daughter of Pierre Lorillard IV,[27] in 1893.[28] They divorced,[29][30] and he married Harriet Stewart Brown (1884–1953), daughter of Baltimore banker Alexander Brown, in 1909. After his death, his widow married C. Ledyard Blair.[31]
- Laura Suffern Tailer (1869–1887), who died young.
- Frances Bogert "Fannie" Tailer (1884–1953),[32] who married Sydney Johnston Smith (1868–1949), a cotton broker and sportsman,[12] in 1896.[9] They divorced in 1909 and she married C. Whitney Carpenter (1884–1954) in 1916.[33] They also divorced.[34]
Tailer died in New York City on February 15, 1917.[1] He was buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.[10] His wife died shortly thereafter on March 17, 1917, reportedly overcome by grief for the loss of her husband.[17]
Descendants
Through his daughter Mary, he was a grandfather of Assemblyman Robert Reginald Livingston Jr.[22] Through his daughter Frances, he was a grandfather of Earl Edward Tailer Smith (1903–1991), a diplomat who served as U.S. Ambassador to Cuba as well as the mayor of Palm Beach, Florida.[34]
References
- "Edward N. Tailer Dead – Retired Merchant Was Member of an Old New York Family". The New York Times. 16 February 1917. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
- "Tailer, Edward Neufville". newyorkdiaries.com. New York Diaries (1609-2009). Retrieved 3 November 2017.
- Yale University Class of 1896 (1907). Decennial Record of the Class of 1896, Yale College. De Vinne Press. p. 599. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
- Henkin, David M. (1998). City Reading: Written Words and Public Spaces in Antebellum New York. Columbia University Press. p. 130. ISBN 9780231107440. Retrieved 3 November 2017.
- Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York (1902). Genealogical Record of the Saint Nicholas Society: Advanced Sheets, First Series. Society. p. 61. Retrieved 3 November 2017.
- Hall, Henry (1895). America's Successful Men of Affairs: The city of New York. New York Tribune. p. 639. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
- Luskey, Brian P. (2011). On the Make: Clerks and the Quest for Capital in Nineteenth-Century America. NYU Press. p. 37. ISBN 9780814753101. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
- O'Reilly, Edward (22 September 2015). ""With a happy open smile": An New Yorker's 1859 Visit to the Vatican". New-York Historical Society. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
- Folpe, Emily Kies (2002). It Happened on Washington Square. JHU Press. p. 142. ISBN 9780801870880. Retrieved 3 November 2017.
- "An Old New Yorker". The New York Times. 18 February 1917. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
- "Art Works to Mrs. Tailer – Retired Merchant's Son Gets His 48 Volume Scrapbook". The New York Times. 6 March 1917. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
- Patterson, Jerry E. (2000). The First Four Hundred: Mrs. Astor's New York in the Gilded Age. Random House. p. 229. ISBN 9780847822089. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
- McAllister, Ward (16 February 1892). "The Only Four Hundred – Ward M'Allister Gives Out the Official List – Here Are the Names, Don't You Know, On the Authority of Their Great Leader, You Understand, and Therefore Genuine, You See" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved 26 March 2017.
- King, Moses (1899). Notable New Yorkers of 1869-1899: A Companion Volume to King's Handbook of New York City. Moses King. p. 568. Retrieved 19 September 2017.
- Keister, Lisa A. (2005). Getting Rich: America's New Rich and How They Got That Way. Cambridge University Press. p. 36. ISBN 9780521536677. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
- Reynolds, Cuyler (1914). Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York and the Hudson River Valley: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Building of a Nation. Lewis Historical Publishing Company. p. 1333. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
- "Mrs. A. S. Tailer Dead – Social Leader Expires in the House She Spent Her Life". The New York Times. 19 March 1917. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
- "Mrs. Agnes S. Tailer's Will – Estate Divided Among Her Daughters and Brother". The New York Times. 11 April 1917. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
- "Mrs. H. L. Burnett". The New York Times. 12 December 1932. Retrieved 3 November 2017.
- "Miscellaneous City News – A Brilliant Wedding – Marriage of Gen. Herry L. Burnett to Miss Agents S. Tailer". The New York Times. 1 February 1882. Retrieved 3 November 2017.
- "Mrs. Livingston Hostess – Gives a Dance for Her Son, R. R. Livingston, and Fiancee, Miss Dean". The New York Times. 17 February 1922. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
- "Mrs. Livingston, 82, Nursery Advocate – Member of Noted Family Dies – Ex-Delegate Had Served on Democratic State Group". The New York Times. 19 October 1944. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
- Dutchess County Historical Society (1928). Year Book of the Dutchess County Historical Society. The Society. p. 67. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
- Burke, Arthur Meredyth (1908). The Prominent Families of the United States of America. Genealogical Publishing Com. p. 38. ISBN 9780806313085. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
- "T. Suffern Tailer Buried – Many Residents of Newport Attend the Funeral Services". The New York Times. 28 December 1928. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
- "Obituary 2". The New York Times. 4 April 1922. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
- "How Mr. Lorillard Divided His Estate – Bequest of Rancocas to a Woman Arouses His Family – Clubmen Talk of a Contest – Tuxedo Property Guarded by Strict Provisions – The Widow's Annuity – The Will Disposes of $4,000,000". The New York Times. 14 July 1901. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
- "Wedded Before Many Friends; Miss Maud Lorillard Becomes Mrs. T. Suffern Tailer. Dr. Satterlee Performs a Simple Ceremony in Calvary Church—Wedding Breakfast at the Lorillard Residence—Showered with Rice as They left the House—One Hundred Thousand Dollars' Worth of Presents—To Spend a Few Months at the World's Fair and Then to go Abroad." The New York Times April 16, 1893. p. 10.
- "Separation Reported of Suffern Tailers – Wife Probably Will Ask Divorce, His Secretary Says in Washington". The New York Times. 5 November 1933. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
- "Mrs. T. Suffern Tailer Obtains Her Divorce – Wife of Clubman and Whip Granted a Decree in North Dakota – She Went to the Western State for the Purpose, Charging Desertion – History of Their Troubles". The New York Times. 15 August 1902. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
- "C. Ledyard Blair, Banker, 82, Dead".The New York Times, February 8, 1949. Accessed March 12, 2008.
- "Mrs. Taller Carpenter". The New York Times. January 2, 1953. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
- "Mrs. F. T. Smith a Bride – Weds C. W. Carpenter, Jr., at Home of Her Brother, T. Suffern Taller". The New York Times. 30 May 1916. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
- "Mrs. F. Tailer Carpenter Estate Split Between Sons". Newport Daily News. 13 January 1953. p. 5. Retrieved 19 May 2018.